Mercenary: Solitare Unraveling
by Trotline
Summary: AU: Harry is taken within an hour of his arrival at the Dursley's. Follow him up until his first year, as he is raised by a mercenary in LA. Part 1 of 3. rated for language, violence, and crude and possibly offending humor being re-written
1. A Beginning and A Call

. This will be AU, harry isnt gonna start hogwarts till hes 16 or so.

Summary: Harry never stays with the Dursleys, but is taken within an hour of his arrival to live the life of a mercenary in South LA. (if i get some facts about LA wrong I appologise, im no expert on the place) this is not a crossover, im just borrowing a few names from some of my favorite games, call it a tribute.

Rating: M- Strong Language, Violence, Blood/Gore, and Crude and possible offensive humor

Disclamer: I do not own any of the characters you may reconize in this fic, I only own the ones you dont.

the names Rude and Reno were borrowed from FF7, property of Square-Enix

"speaking"

"_thoughts"_

"**parsletounge**"

------

In the dead of night, one wouldn't expect anything, unatural, to happen on such a _perfect_ road in an equally perfect town, Surrey. Actually one wouldnt think _anything_ unusual would happen on this street at all, but being ignorant muggles as they were, they wouldnt know the significance of it anyway. As it was, the only thing disturbing the suffocating silence of the area was the occational breeze in the immaculately trimmed hedges or perhaps a cat scuttling across the road.

If one were to watch close at the top of the hill, they may notice a slight glimmer of light and the sillouette of a tall man, seeming to sprout out of the top of the hill, bringing with him all sorts of the unnaturalness that this upstanding community detested. The old man looked up and locked eyes with a cat, and while one may think this man was just your average cat lover, they probably would'nt understand the flash of amusement and farmiliarity in his almost lumonecent blue eyes. With a swish of his robes, or dress depending on your disposition, he pulled out a silver contraption that quite resembeled a cigarette lighter and began clicking the button on the side. Now one may believe this was an odd action, since he didnt appear to have a cigarette in his mouth, but they would have most likely passed out in shock when the first street light went out and trailed into the lighter/putteroutter. He clicked his object several more times until the nearest street lights were a quarter mile away, before putting it back in his robes and striding up to the cat, the heels of his slightly feminine boots tapping sharply on the asphault below him.

As he neared the feline, it seemed to blur before being replaced with an elderly woman. This particular woman, while getting on in years as you could see in the liberal grey splashed throughout her stiff, professional looking bun, seemed to posses an energy that one couldn't explain at first. She had the look of a person that could intimidate a lawyer and could easily passify a crying child in moments, but the expression on her face at this time would send said lawyers into hysterics.

" Honestly Albus, you can't be thinking of putting any child, let alone Harry Potter _here! _Dear lord, these people are the worst sort of muggles that I've ever had the misfortune of watching!"as one could see, she wasn't happy with the standing living arrangements for the child and it showed in the form of several veins throbbing in her forehead at quite an alarming rate, one could even call it unhealthy.

" Oh! hello Minerva, wonderful evening, isnt it?" Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Defender of the Light, and all around nice guy, seemed as if he couldn't understand the womans distress. " I trust you have had an uneventful day watching the Dursleys? What seems to be the problem?"

At this one could almost see the fire flaring up in the woman, Minerva McGonagall's ,eyes matching the almost strobe light level twinkle in Albus' eyes. " This is no time for jokes Albus! Im being serious here, Harry _cannot live here!" _ Her eyes seemed to dull down as she continued, "With James and Lily dead...their son is going to have a difficult life as it is, the worst thing you can do is allow him to be raised ignorant of his herritage, his _world_! And I know these," she paused as a look of distaste came over her face, " _people _aren't the ones to tell him, even if I entertained the idea that they _would _tell him!"

Just as the old man was opening his mouth to reply, a roar that was steadly growing louder came upon them in the form of a giant motercycle and an even larger man riding it. As the very large and hairy man stepped off the motercycle his size became more evident, standing at seven and a half feet tall, four feet wide and a beard large enough to be consitered a seperate lifeform, stepped up to the odd pair in front of the almost disturbingly perfect house. " Sorry i'm late per'fessers, I ran into young Sirius Black at the Potters..home," he faultered there as tears filled his beetle black eyes, "There wa'nt much left after the 'splosion and ah think lil 'arry here was the only thin that was'nt burnt up but ah got 'im here fer ya." and at that he handed a small bundle of blankets to Albus.

When the old man took the bundle while mentally trying to figure out what exactly Hagrid had said, he peered in and gasped at what he saw. A still bloody gash was carved into the child's forehead just above his right eye. "Is that where..." Minerva paused, leaving an open ended question for the Headmaster to answer. "Yes, this is where the killing curse struck, he will carry the scar until the day he dies, though how he survived Tom's killing curse is a mystery in and of itself." Finally, big honkin guy called Hagrid, could not contain his curiosity any further, " Is You-kno'-Who really gone, Per'fesser?" At this Albus shook his head and replied, "I honestly dont know why people insist on calling him 'You-Know-Who, being afraid of his name is what lets him win most of his battles, as for your question, yes he is gone for now, though I doubt he is really gone for good...while he was insane he wasnt stupid, if anyone could figure out how to stay on the mortal plain after Avada Kedavra then he is the one." At that statement silence fell over the strange trio.

Finally Dumbledore strode up to one of the houses, number four to be precise, and gently placed the bundle one the doorstep and tucked the note into the folds of the blanket and turned around without a second glance. " Come Minerva, Hagrid, there are parties waiting and it would do us some good to get all of this off of our minds for a short while." At that the old man and the cat lady turned and walked up the street toward the distant cracks and booms of fireworks, while the giant man got on the motercycle and drove off to deliver it back to its owner. At the top of the hill, Albus paused and clicked the lighter lookalike and all the street lights returned to their original positions, all the while muttering, "Stay safe, Harry Potter, more people are counting on you than you know. When the time comes the Boy-Who-Lived will have to stand up against the evil that is Voldermort and you will be ready...all the pieces are in place." and with that he seemed to dissapear into thin air with a slight pop, leaving the perfectly normal street, slightly more abnormal than it started.

---

Los Angeles, California

Solitare Unraveling Tattoos and Piercing

9:35 P.M.

A shrill ring broke the silence that had settled over the shop, startling the owner so bad he tripped over a trash can, hit his head on the sink, and had an extremely large handgun out pointing at no one in the space of two seconds. The man held his head in pain while flailing the gun around in a slightly deranged manner, cursing the phone, sink, his ex-wife, and the stray dog peeing on his sign. "Hold your goddamn horses, for christ sake." he muttered as he staggered his way to the phone across the shop. Fumbling with the reciever he finally got it to his ear after the fourteenth ring, "Solitare Unraveling Tattoos, tatting and piercing for 6 years, how can I help you?"

"Hows it goin, Rude?"

_Ah haven't heard that voice in years._

"Not bad Reno, keeping busy. You?

_It's been A long damn time but I can't think of anything more meaningful to say._

_Then again we have always been this way. Polite but cold, best friends but complete strangers._

"Hell no, you know me well enough to know me and work don't mix well."

_True enough I suppose._

"I guess thats true, but I know your not one for social calls so what is it."

_Cut to the chase, its always been like this in our line of work_

"One of my _special_ contacts called me up, and I need to call you on that favor you owe me."

_Should have known he would pull this shit, sometimes I wish he had left me for dead._

_And it's one of his special contacts, magic folks._

"...Alright, what do you want from me?"

_I do have honor, as much as a guy like me can have, so i'll repay this so-called debt and hopefully he will leave me be afterwards._

"C'mon man, dont make it sound like your dog just died. And what do ya got better to do, _tattoos _yo?"

_I had forgot what an asshole this guy was, i'll do what I do best_

_"..."_

_Take that bitch!_

"Whatever man, a couple of old warbuddies just died. The Potters. And they left behind a year old kid, I owe both them my life so the least I could do is make sure he's protected, and your one of the best."

_Ah Hells Na!!_

"No."

_Like I said, Hells na!_

"Man come on, I can't take him cause the second he's found missing all magical households will be searched for him. Im calling an old debt, do this and i'll call us even, more than even. And get this, the kid stopped the one who killed Tseng."

_SHUT UP!! Thats NONE of your goddamn buisness_

_"..."_

_Don't bring this back, it took me 5 years to get over it_

"Im sorry man, I was out of line. I'll just hit up one of my other friends..."

_STOP!!_

"No, wait. Just tell me where we can meet, we can talk."

_I owe it to the kid if he took out Voldermort, if he avenged Tseng_

"Meet me at Rocky's Diner in an hour."

_Well here goes nothin, cause I have no fucking idea what im getting into._

_---_

Good? Bad? review and tear it apart, I want to get better so nice-ness isn't something im worried about

dunno when ill update, but hopefully soon


	2. A Meeting and A child

Disclamer: I do not own any of the characters you may reconize in this fic, I only own the ones you dont.

the names Rude and Reno were borrowed from FF7, property of Square-Enix. nor do I own Rocky Balboa, who makes a cameo

more of Reno and Rudes story is revealed, along with Tseng. oh and the potter kid

note: im not making this story extremely fast paced, im looking at about 15-20 chapters for the first part

this wont be slash I promise

solitare unraveling is the first part

these filthy hands/never let it go is second and

embrace the ending is third

now tell me who these songs are by?(not a songfic)

"speaking"

"_thoughts"_

"**parsletounge**"

---

Los Angeles, California

Outside Rocky's Diner

10:25 P.M.

The street outside Rocky's was strangely silent, with the exeption of distant car horns, cans clanking down the road, and the occational gunshot and scream, as Rude wandered along the broken sidewalk. He scratched his bald head with scarred and tattooed hand, while adjusting his silver rimmed, black sun glasses, though why he was wearing sunglasses at ten thirty at night was anyones guess.

"_why, oh why am I actually going to meet this guy? God knows he's gonna get me a bunch of shit like last time..." _ The last time these two had met up at a diner, 4 people had been killed, his car had been mauled beyond repair, and he lost the pinky on his left hand. "_The only reason im doing this is for Tseng..." _He continued his treck toward the diner with a head full of dark, and slightly homicidal thoughts, a hand on his gun, and eyes constantly searching for any threat that might jump out of an ally, "_Actually that would make my day, c'mon fuckers just **try** to mug me!"_

Sadly, nobody decided to mug him on this particular trip and the only company he had on the trip was a stray cat that must have thought he was packing food or something similar. "Scat fucker, before I shoot you!" and threw a pepermint at the cat, carrying pepermints on your person at all times was quite convenient at times. The cat glared at him and sprinted off to do whatever stray cats do, when claping came from the shadow beside the diner. "Bravo, Rude. Never thought you would waste one of your precious mints on a furball but...meh...you never know." And a red haired head popped out, only to be met with the barrel of "Rude's Ridiculously Over-Powered Handgun-O-Doom(tm)" in between his eyes.

"Hmm, Reno. Despite how much I would really like to pull this trigger, hows it been?" Rude smirked at the slightly bug-eyed red-head. The gun was lifted and put in it's holster, inside his perfectly pressed black suit jacket, in a swift move that suggested he was quite practiced with this move, meaning putting up the gun, not pointing it at friends heads ,ahem. Rude stuck out his still intact hand and Reno grabbed the hand while pulling him into a manly sort of hug. "Rude, my man, how's it hangin? Your buyin dinner tonight, right? Im broke as fuck cause the _special _war seems to be over and thats bad for buisness as you should know." Reno seemed to ramble off the full sentence in a second, hopefully throwing Rude off long enough to have him agree to buy dinner. Aqua eyes flashed, with humor, under a curtain of fire red hair and two long scars running along the sides of his face crinkled with his rather lop-sided grin running from ear to ear.

_"Trying the fast talking act eh? Never did work on me but i'll humor him for now." _Rude was a stark contrast to his talkative...associate. Perfectly pressed suit to a wrinkled and slightly off colored blue suit, Professional black sunglasses to a pair of flight goggles haphazardly shoved up into long hair to keep it out of ones eyes. "Yes I planned on buying, you haven't had money to spend since i've known you, with the exeption of alcohol and hooker money." Yes, he knew he was being snapish, but when startled out of his musings by idiots one must be given a bit of a break. Silence fell over the two and quickly turned awkward, so Rude began walking into the diner, the now familiar chime ringing somewhere in the back as the door opened.

"Yo! Rude hows it goin? What can Rocky do for ya?" a very...New York...accented voice called out of the back. A very fit and muscular, dark haired man walked up to the desk. The man, Rocky, who was once a world champion boxer and consitered the best, was now showing his age and looked a bit punch drunk. He would often tell of his 'glory days' to his customers, complete with punch motions, and was known for getting a bit over excited and accidentally punching out customers. "Just a couple of your specials with coffee for both me and the freeloader here." Rude called while carelessly gesturing toward Reno, who was squinting at the sudden light from the diner. "Yo Reno, hows you doin? You better not be drunk again or i'll throw you's ass out again!" Rocky hollered, and the thing was he looked serious about the throwing threat. "No probs Rock, I ain't had nothin to drink for about an hour now." Rocky just rolled his eyes and kept on cooking while hoping the drunk wouldn't break anything or kill anyone this time.

Rude sat at the booth in the far back corner, waiting for Reno to wander his way, and fell back to his previous musings. "_I really don't like this situation, something tells me theres more to this kid than Reno's telling."_ Rude stared absently at the far wall, while adjusting his earings on his left ear, and was abruptly startled, _again_, by a red head waving at him. "_hmm, should I pull the hand cannon again...na i'll let him off this time." _But that didn't stop him from glaring at Reno through his dark shades. "Stick your hand in my face again and I _will SHOOT you. _Reno fell back into his seat, looking amused and a bit frightened, a bit like a child that has been threatened with a baseball bat, actually. "You didn't look like you were all there, so it was up to me to wake ya up, yo?" and was glared at again for using the word yo. "So let's get down to buisness yo?" completely disregarding the glare, and continuing at Rude's terse nod.

"The kids parents were killed by Voldermort, ya see, and when he went to kill the kid the spell, supposedly unblockable instant death ray, shot back at em, blew up the house, and all they found was his cloak. As we speak the kids being taken to his aunt and uncle's house at a suburb of London.." at this Rude gawked, "You want me to go to London!!" Reno, put out at being interupted by the traditionally silent Rude, jumped back in. "No, no, no were not leavin LA, some of my _contacts_ are getting him as we speak. All you need to do is keep the kid at your place, keep him safe, and don't tell nobody who he is, simple yo?"

---

Los Angeles, California

Solitare Unraveling Tattoos and Piercing

10:50 P.M.

Reno and Rude waited in the tattoo shop, since Rude didn't trust the red head in his house, let alone letting him know where it was. Reno was playing with Rude's carefully _sterilized_ equipment, buzzing the tattoo gun at everything like it was some kind of weapon. "Cut it out for fuck's sake, Reno! Cleaning that shit isn't easy nor is it cheap, so sit down and QUIT FUCKING AROUND!" needless to say Rude's patience had not only worn out but broke, died, and was thrown out in the river. "Alright, man take it easy. Don't get your blood pressure up , it ain't healthy." all the while still buzzing the tattoo gun, clearly not taking Rude seriously.

BANG!!

And Reno was on the floor looking at the bullet hole in the wall near where his head had vacated moments ago. "Damn man I get the picture! I'll put it down." and threw the gun while muttering about "skitzo gunmen" and "fucking maniacs".

After about 5 minutes a sharp crack outside was followed by a rather timid tapping on the door and hushed wisperings outside.

Rude stalked up to the door and threw it open with a crash. "Bout goddamn time, this guy is driving me crazy, come on, we'll talk in my office." And stalked his merry way back to a rather unnoticed door off the main hallway. Upon entry they were greeted by a modest sized room with a small desk and lamp set, the walls were covered in tattoo sketches and band posters. The two men cautiously entered the room with a small bundle in-between them and Reno right after. "Well let me see the brat." Rude demanded as he stalked, yet again, up to the two men and snached the bundle. "Black hair, what appear to be green eyes, and a big fucking cut on his head...hm well I naturally have black hair so I can say he's a nephew." The bald man took of his glasses and amethyst met emerald for the first time, the two men gasped at the site of a huge man with glowing purple eyes. "This ain't a fucking show, get out!" and the two men ran like their lives depended on it, which was likely true.

"He looks alot like Tseng did at this age...well, I suppose i'll take him. Call me in a couple days and we'll see what happens." Reno looked at the floor, hesitating, then snapping his eyes up to Rude, "Can't man, i'm going to help the magical police round up the last of Voldimans troops. I suppose there finally swallowing their pride and hiring a merc to get the job done. And i've lived in the muggle world for too long as it is.." Rude looked confused then remembered, _"ah muggle, us lowly non-magic folks." _Rude walked back to his chair and sat down, still eye locked with the child, "Well I suppose it's goodbye then, Reno?" At Reno's nod Rude stood back up and looked in the red heads eyes. Old pain, shared experiences, and knowlege gained from a life of killing was mirrored in each of their eyes as something told them this was probably their last meating, and they came forward and embraced as only old friends can while watching out for squashing the baby. With one last glance Reno nodded and vanished into thin air with a crack.

_"Welp, kid, its you and me now...hmm what to do?" _

_----_

songs for inspiration-

otherside-RHCP

solitare unraveling- guesswho

and death blooms- mudvayne

Reviews would be nice, Im finding that I quite like writing and any useful comments would be nice

till next time.


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